The four elite knights who burnished the Black Knights' renowned name possessed distinct personalities, not to mention striking good looks.
Whenever word spread that they would attend a high-society ball, the venue was always packed wall to wall.
The man who had just stifled a laugh was Lewis Othello, known as the Scarlet Flame Knight for his fiery red hair.
As Lewis shielded his mouth with his fist, geometric tattoos on the back of his hand came into view, along with a messy cluster of black piercings in his ear.
His appearance made his mercenary background plain to see, yet that freewheeling edge only added to his charm among high-society debutantes.
Lewis's amused gaze turned toward Mona.
“?”
Winking playfully, he let the words slip off his tongue with practiced ease.
Hugo furrowed his brow at Lewis’s endlessly frivolous attitude.
While Dominic mediated between the two, Rihart walked toward the front of the conference room with an impassive expression.
Tink.
With a casual flick of his hand, a fixing pin tumbled onto the floor.
Swish—
The rolled map unraveled from top to bottom all at once, revealing a dense, sprawling map of the Empire drawn across thick parchment.
With that single, restrained movement, Rihart commanded the scattered attention of the entire room.
‘…How does that man manage to be terrifying in a brand-new way every time I see him?’
Overwhelmed once again by Rihart's presence, Mona flinched instinctively the moment he picked up his scabbard, guilt gnawing at her conscience.
Thwack.
His pitch-black scabbard struck the Kirki Mountains, which stretched across the Land of Chaos on the map.
It was the very place Rihart had marked with pins on the wall map last time.
As if deployed on an urgent military operation, Rihart got straight to the point without delay.
No sooner had he finished speaking than a single question crossed Mona's mind: Why?
‘…Does the imperial family believe the cause of the monsters' rampage lies in the Kirki Mountains?’
What was the basis for that conclusion?
Just then, Rihart looked out toward somewhere far beyond the window.
An ecological trait of monsters tumbled from his lips.
Setting aside how surreal it felt to hear the Empire's most popular man discuss the fundamentals of its least popular discipline…
Why bring that up all of a sudden?
“…!”
Mona’s eyes went wide.
‘How on earth did Rihart discover why the dragon went berserk, let alone the extent of its domain?’
As her curiosity surged, Noel Lotus asked the very question itching at the back of her mind.
Rihart answered without hesitation.
A ripple of excitement stirred the room as a war hero shared an untold account straight from the battlefield.
It was the kind of sensational scoop that could splash across the front page of every newspaper.
Even if the non-disclosure agreements kept their lips sealed to the outside world, no matter how much they burned to gossip.
“…”
Falling silent for a moment, Rihart slowly drew his gaze away from the window and began to recite in a low murmur, his eyes as sunken and dark as the deep sea.
“Sanctum meu Kyrki violare ausus es.”
Mona’s jaw fell slightly at the forgotten language rolling off his tongue.
‘It’s the ancient tongue….’
Having grown up surrounded by it in her grandmother’s book-lined study, Mona could read and write the ancient language.
Yet she had never known that its intricate tones, when articulated as flawlessly as Rihart spoke them, could sound like recited poetry.
Framed by his unreal elegance, it almost looked like a scene lifted from an opera.
“…in aeternum, mea ira non quiescet. (I shall lay an eternal curse. My wrath shall never sleep.)”
”
Though his cadence was smooth, the meaning woven through his words dripped with malice and wrath.
Perhaps that was why.
A chill of dread gripped Mona's chest.
At the same time, a scene from that night—one she had tried so hard to bury—flashed through her mind.
Glistening with raw fury, the crimson eyes of a predator….
Then came the voice.
Snapping back to the chilling composure of a commander, Rihart’s tone shook Mona awake like a douse of ice water.
Tap.
The tip of Rihart’s scabbard tapped the map once more.
It rested upon the western border, right where it met the Land of Chaos.
“…”
They were finally heading to the western frontier.
With the long-awaited expedition into the Land of Chaos suddenly looming over her, Mona clutched her research notebook tightly, her heart lurching in her chest.
***
With the departure set far sooner than anticipated, the project’s second meeting concluded in a taut, stifling silence.
Mona was the only one whose pulse quickened with excitement at the thought of the Land of Chaos.
‘I need to hurry.’
Returning to her dormitory in a flutter of anticipation, Mona immediately began packing to head out.
There was little time left.
In a week's time, she would leave the capital for the western reaches of the Empire.
She needed to make every preparation she could while she still had the chance.
‘First, the dye.’
If she was discovered to be the white-haired woman, the investigation wouldn't matter—her life would be forfeit on the spot.
So Mona purchased a premium gray dye that took less than a minute to set, portioning it into a small spray bottle.
‘After testing it with my special additive, the spray dyed everything within thirty seconds.’
Naturally, she did not forget to pack several hats and thick-rimmed glasses for good measure.
Once fully prepared to conceal her identity, she visited the alchemy workshop and the black market.
Stocking up on all manner of ingredients with the generous stipend granted by the imperial family, Mona headed to an abandoned monastery near the academy for the first time in a while.
It was the very place where she had conducted her secret research in hiding.
Only this time, she was not brewing a 'perfume to befriend monsters,' but compounding reagents essential for an expedition.
As she stepped inside the monastery, the chill air wrapped around her.
***
‘It’s as eerie as ever.’
Overshadowed by the Reformed Church and fallen into ruin long ago, the Old Faith monastery held a gloomy atmosphere that seemed ready to cough up a ghost at any moment.
Layers of dust coated long-neglected statues of deities, while cobwebs draped across corners of the chapel.
Yet the confessional booth Mona had commandeered as her private lab was kept passably tidy.
Creak—
From beneath a chair behind the wooden partition where a monk might once have sat, Mona pulled out a large crate.
Inside, flasks, a miniature brazier, a mortar, and an array of alchemical tools were tightly packed together.
Donning an apron, Mona lined up her materials across the prayer rail.
Soon, her hands moved briskly, following the formulas mapped out in her mind.
‘It feels good to get my hands dirty for a change.’
Having watched and assisted her monster-scholar grandmother’s work since childhood, Mona had developed quite an aptitude for ancient alchemy.
Above all, brewing a monster-repellent scent was child’s play compared to concocting a perfume meant to befriend them.
As her hands swiftly blended the ingredients, her mind chewed over the shocking revelation she had heard from Rihart.
‘…To think the Kirki Mountains were a Black Dragon's domain.’
She knew higher-ranking monsters held broader territories, but for a single beast to claim an entire mountain range for itself was extraordinary.
What, then, had dared to trespass upon the realm of such a transcendent creature?
Even land-hungry humans feared dragons enough to shun the Land of Chaos for ages….
‘Could a new dragon have appeared?’
Yet dragons were few in number and reproduced with great difficulty. By their very instincts, they avoided intruding upon each other's territory to preserve their kind.
“…Hmm.”
Even Mona, with her deep grasp of monster biology, struggled to form a satisfying hypothesis.
Still, one certainty remained.
She would soon set foot in the mountain range where a dragon once dwelt.
Wherever a dragon slumbered, dense concentrations of demonic energy were sure to flow.
And where demonic energy ran thick, peculiar plant-type monsters grew in abundance.
‘Perhaps… I might finally get my hands on the ingredient to make my long-standing experiment succeed.’
Clenching her fists, Mona felt a thrill of anticipation bloom within her.
